I have 27 mosquito bites on my stomach alone. For all of you who recommended stuff like vitamin b, fabric softener sheets and organic repellant, GTH (if you try, you can figure it out:)). Gimme the real stuff and let me bathe in it, please.

Okay, now that I have gotten that one off my chest (which, BTW, is the only part of me that is mosquito bite free), I can maybe provide a quick update on the wonders that are Guatemalan.

First, the nasty stuff: let me just say that the antibiotic Cipro is a godsend. I spent 24 hours making passsionate love to a toilet that did not flush at night. "Gross" is an understatment. I am not sure what I did b/c I have been very careful with the water, but who knows. Anyway, I am fully recovered and able to eat all of the rice, beans and papaya that I want.

The school I am attending is fabulous. My profesora is a 26 year old Mayan named Elsa who is studying to be an accountant. She is very exacting and patient & is helping me clean up a lot of really bad habits. I get a whole bunch of homework every night & I am happy to report that I can now read Spanish really well at the 4th grade level. I am also learning some stuff about Spanish punctuation that will help me a lot when I am working with students who are hispanohablantes. I promise I will not go off on an English teacher tear, but I will be happy to share with any of my coworkers who are interested when I get home. Let me just say that Spanish really doesn't seem to have such a thing as a comma splice.

Last Thursday our school had an activity that took us to an out-lying village named San Antonio. It is a pueblo that specializes in textiles and needle work. We went into a family compound where the residents/co-op members showed us all kinds of typical aspects of their lives--everything from a corn fertility dance to a mock wedding ceremony. And of course, when all was finished, we were invited to spend as much money as we liked. I think "Buen precio, mi amiga," is how you say Holly in Spanish because so many people have looked me lovingly in the eye and uttered those exact words.

The textilework is utterly amazing. Elsa told me that she spent two years working on a piece of needle work that she wears to special functions at church and fiestas. Seeing how much time these women spend on their knees in order to make a few dollars is humbling. My friend Anne, who returns to the US on Saturday, is doing her best to help those women up off their knees--she is buying a lot of cool stuff.

Anne and I spent the weekend traveling to Lago Atitlan with Jason, a former professional ballet dancer turned middle school English and history teacher we met at our school. We spent the night in a little pueblo named San Marcos. According to the Mayans, the location is a vortex of healing. Hippies and new-age types have picked up on this & have started to build healing centers & yoga studios and places where people smoke a lot of pot. Still, it is a very tranquil place that is not really touched by the incredible lure of the dollar and we spent a day swimming and jumping off rocks (okay, i didn't jump, but Anne and Jason did) with a whole bunch of little boys in their underpants. It was very cool.

From San Marcos, we walked to a town called San Pedro--2 hours on an up and down road that we shared with tuktuks, horses, dog and pickups with beds filled with people. oh yea--also camionetas (chicken buses to most of you). San Pedro was everything San Marcos was not--kind of an icky, party-central mentality. We left the next morning for Chichicastenango, home to the biggest mercado tipico en Guatemala. I got carsick on the way, so the only thing I purchased there was dramamine. Still, we had fun, although it was very crowded.

I could really go on and on and on, but will stop here. The people we have met--indigenous & fellow travelers alike--have been wonderful so far! Tomorrow I will learn more about the volunteer work I will be doing--I think I will be in a school for los pobres doing what, I do not know.

I have loved reading comments from those of you who have chosen to respond. Would someone please let me know when Laura has her baby? I will light a candle at la iglesia de la merced:).

When I figure out how, I will post some pictures. Stay tuned...